1. Field of the Invention
In general, the present invention relates to a tunable engine, method and program product for resolving prerequisites for client devices utilizing an OSGi runtime/framework. Specifically, the present invention allows the prerequisite resolution process to be uniquely configurable for different client devices.
2. Related Art
As computer networking has become more advanced, a standard known as the Open Service Gateway Initiative (OSGi) has been developed. The OSGi is an industry plan to provide a standard way to deliver managed services to devices and local networks. With such a standard, home users could, for example, change the setting on their thermostat from a remote location (e.g., the workplace). In general, the OSGi provides a good framework for developing application components. Under the OSGi, a basic component is known as an OSGi bundle. An OSGi application can be made up of combinations/suites of bundles that might share common functionality. To this extent, the OSGi allows developers to define the dependencies between the bundles such as the packages and services required by the bundles. In a typical implementation, an OSGi architecture will include, among other components, a server and one or more client devices. Each client device will have an OSGi environment within which OSGi applications are deployed. Using a management program on the sever, the functions of the OSGi applications can be controlled.
Unfortunately, as convenient as the OSGi framework can be, it currently fails to provide a tunable way to resolve prerequisites for OSGi bundles that are to be loaded and run on a client device. For example, for an OSGi bundle to properly run on a client device, certain packages and/or services might be necessary and levels of resources such as RAM, sockets, threads, disk space, etc. If the client device is lacking any of the necessary prerequisites, other OSGi bundles (or combinations thereof) that provide the missing prerequisites should be utilized.
However, it may be the case that there is more than one combination of OSGi bundles that could provide the missing prerequisites. These different combinations of bundles might consume different levels of resources (i.e., RAM, sockets, threads, disk space, etc.). The collection of bundles chosen to supply the missing prerequisites should make the best use of the resources available without exceeding the resource levels available on the device. Some resources available on the device might be relatively more sparse and/or valuable then other resources on the device. Thus, there exists a need not only to resolve and supply the missing prerequisites, but to do so in a manner consistent with the aforementioned characteristics (i.e., level and relative value of a type of resource). As such, the server should reconcile the capabilities of the client device with the necessary prerequisites of the OSGi bundles. This is not a simple goal to realize especially since each different client device could have different capabilities or available computer resources. Moreover, an OSGi bundle identified to address a prerequisite that the client device lacks could itself have certain prerequisites that the client device lacks. Accordingly, not only should the prerequisite resolution process be configurable for each type of client device (or individual client device as appropriate), but it should also be done recursively to ensure that all prerequisites are resolved.
In view of the foregoing, there exists a need for a tunable engine, method and program product for resolving prerequisites for client devices utilizing an Open Service Gateway Initiative (OSGi) framework/runtime. Specifically a need exists for a system that can recursively resolve prerequisites based on the individual needs and resource characteristics of the target client device. To this extent, a further need exists for the system to accommodate any quantity of client devices.